Power and influence : the metaphysics of reductive explanation / Richard Corry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Corry, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reductionism.

Causation.

Physical Description:

vii, 240 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Summary:

The world is a complex place, and this complexity is an obstacle to our attempts to explain, predict, and control it. In Power and Influence, Richard Corry investigates the assumptions that are built into the reductive method of explanation-the method whereby we study the components of a complex system in relative isolation and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. He investigates the metaphysical presuppositions built into the reductive method, seeking to ascertain what the world must be like in order that the method could work. Corry argues that the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest causal influence-a relatively unrecognised ontological category, of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influences. The book goes on to show that adding causal influence to our ontology gives us the resources to solve some traditional problems in the metaphysics of causal powers, laws of nature, causation, emergence, and possibly even normative ethics. What results, then, is not just an understanding of the reductive method, but an integrated metaphysical worldview that is grounded in an ontology of power and influence.

Contents:

2 Taking Apart the World p. 6

2.1 Explanatory Reduction vs Theory Reduction p. 6

2.2 Characterizing Explanatory Reduction p. 8

2.3 Mechanistic Explanation p. 16

3 Causal Influence p. 19

3.1 Invariant Behaviour p. 20

3.2 Invariant Laws p. 23

3.3 Invariant Humean Dispositions p. 26

3.4 Invariant Capacities or Non-Humean Dispositions p. 28

3.5 Invariant Causal Influence p. 32

3.6 Composition of Influence p. 37

3.7 Fundamental Influences p. 40

4 Causal Power p. 43

4.1 Powers as Dispositions p. 43

4.2 Multi-Track Powers p. 55

4.3 Functions p. 58

4.4 Functions and Invariance p. 60

4.5 Fields of Influence p. 62

4.6 Probabilistic Power and Influence p. 63

5 Putting Things Together: The Assumptions of Reduction p. 65

5.1 Decomposing the Complex System p. 66

5.2 Identifying Powers and their Associated Subsystems p. 69

5.3 Calculating the Basic Influences p. 75

5.4 Composing Influences p. 77

5.5 Assumptions of the Reductive Method p. 78

5.6 Are Influences Redundant? p. 86

6 Macroscopic Power and Influence p. 90

6.1 Synchronic Composition of Powers p. 91

6.2 Composite Influences p. 95

6.3 Asynchronic Composition of Powers p. 109

6.4 Approximate Powers: Keeping Things Simple p. 110

6.5 Antidotes, Finks, and Composite Powers p. 112

6.6 Bird on the Existence of Macro Powers p. 113

6.7 Are All Influences Forces? p. 116

7 Laws of Nature p. 119

7.1 From Dispositions to Laws p. 121

7.2 Fundamental Finks and Antidotes p. 124

7.3 Lying Laws: Regularities in the Course of Events p. 125

7.4 Laws of Influence p. 128

7.5 Laws of Composition p. 129

7.6 Macroscopic Powers and Ceteris Paribus Laws p. 131

8 Causation p. 134

8.1 The Problems of Analysis p. 136

8.2 From Influence to Causation p. 145

8.3 Causation as Production p. 146

8.4 Causation as Dependence: The Counterfactual Analysis p. 155

9 Causal Models p. 159

9.1 Structural Causal Models p. 160

9.2 Level Invariance and Modularity p. 164

9.3 Mechanisms and Influence p. 166

9.4 Causal Influence Models p. 169

9.5 Grounding Counterfactuals p. 171

9.6 Influence Invariance p. 174

9.7 Implications for Structural Equations p. 177

9.8 An Improved Model of Intervention p. 180

10 Emergence and the Failure of Reduction p. 186

10.1 Emergence and Supervenience p. 187

10.2 Epistemic Emergence and Ontological Emergence p. 190

10.3 Assumption 2 and High-Rank Powers p. 193

10.4 Kim's Challenge p. 199

10.5 Assumption 4 and Compositional Emergence p. 208

10.6 Assumption 5 and Non-Linearity p. 211

11 Influentialism: A New Type of Moral Theory? p. 216

11.1 Problem Cases for Consequentialism p. 216

11.2 Influentialism p. 220

11.3 Relations to Other Normative Theories p. 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-235) and index.

ISBN:

0198840713

9780198840718

OCLC:

1088738959